Voting for the election of the country's 14th president gets underway in the National Assembly (NA), the Senate and all four provincial assemblies on Saturday. The polling will continue till 4:00 PM. Allied parties’ candidate Asif Ali Zardari is far ahead of the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) Mahmood Khan Achakzai as he enjoys the backing of a large number of lawmakers. Over 430 lawmakers, from six allied parties, including PML-N, PPP and MQM-P, are likely to vote for Zardari while his rival Achakzai is likely to receive 196 votes. The chief election commissioner will act as the returning officer while the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) will be the presiding officer during voting in the National Assembly and the Senate. Of total 692 lawmakers who will cast their votes today, 96 are senators, 336 are members of the National Assembly (MNAs) while 260 are members of the four provincial assemblies. According to the Second Schedule, the candidate receiving the highest number of votes would be declared the winner by the chief election commissioner (CEC) while the federal government will later notify the result. Article 41(4) of the constitution says that “election to the office of president shall be held not earlier than sixty days and not later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of the president in office.

Provided that, if the election cannot be held within the period aforesaid because the National Assembly is dissolved, it shall be held within thirty days of the general election to the Assembly". Since the general elections were held on February 8, the presidential election must be held by March 9, just two days before the retirement of half of the 100-member Senate. Article 44(1) of the Constitution says that the president will hold office for a term of five years from the day he assumes charge, but he continues to hold the office until a successor is chosen. All MNAs, senators and MPAs have been asked to bring their computerized national identity cards (CNICs) with them. In its reply to SIC candidate Mahmood Khan Achakzai’s letter on Friday in which he had requested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to postpone the presidential election, the ECP had said that the election would be held as per schedule. Achakzai, in his letter, had argued that since the electoral college was incomplete, therefore the election be postponed.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)